Betrayal
by LittleMewLugia
Summary: When Humanity tries to double-cross their Cybertronian guests, Sam is forced to make a difficult choice.
1. Chapter 1

Betrayal.

Summary: When Humanity tries to double-cross their Cybertronian guests, Sam is forced to make a difficult choice.

Rating: Probably T, but M for safety.

Disclaimer: The canon characters used here are not mine, but belong to Dreamworks/Paramount. Such original characters as I may use in here to move the story along are mine.

A/N: This evolved from a bunny from ReflectionsOfReality. Some of the ideas contained here are ones author MeowthTwo and I worked on together.

Betrayal.

Prologue.

Forty-three years after the events of 'Revenge Of the Fallen.'

Sam and Bumblebee had come to see the _Ark's_ transport shuttle take off. It had been a long few years, the human boy reflected. This would be the Autobot shp's second-to-last trip from Earth, taking the last group of displaced people, wannabe colonists and pioneers, and livestock to an uninhabited world that was theirs to colonise, explore, and tame.

Sam was, to be perfectly honest, relieved, for despite constant pressure, the Cybertronians had refused to hand over their technology to humanity. Even the technology used to power their ships could be easily turned into a weapon, and neither side were willing to give such technology to a species so warlike that they could either exterminate themselves more efficiently, or, worse, create a new enemy for both sides. Getting away from Earth for good would relieve the tension between the Cybertronians and the increasingly irritated human world leaders.

"We will transport groups of humans and livestock to planets suitable for colonisation. We will monitor them and intervene if insurmountable problems arise," Optimus had stated. "We will give aid if it is needed, but we will not give your species a technology they are not yet advanced enough to use wisely. You will likely find it yourself eventually, and we can only hope that the wisdom and discipline required to make such a discovery unaided will prevent you from misusing the technology."

Several groups of people had chosen to live on another world. Some of the Inuit and native American population had chosen to live as their ancestors had, on a land that would be untainted by technology and the modern world. On these planets they would not have to face being run off their land as the technologically-advanced humans encroached further and further, corrupting their youngsters and poisoning the land and waters they lived on. Several religious groups, such as the Amish, had also chosen this route, their way of life already threatened by the lure of technology on their youngsters.

Three such worlds had been located and offered to those on Earth who wished to move, solving some groups' problems and easing the world's overpopulation problem in one. The _Ark_ would visit Earth one last time after this, before taking those humans who wished to share one of the two worlds selected by each faction of Cybertronians as their own, with them.

Desperation and necessity had eventually driven Starscream to seek some sort of peace, for Megatron had disappeared after the battle with the Fallen and, so far, he had not returned. When Optimus had put forward the idea of finding two new worlds, one for the Autobots and one for the Decepticons, Starscream had jumped at the chance. Being at war with the Autobots and the humans, on a human controlled world almost drained of its resources, left Starscream and his followers existing on the bare minimum of fuel they could steal, or find and refine into energon.

A temporary truce had been agreed to, a truce, Sam reflected, that Optimus was hoping would last beyond retrieving the Decepticon vessel _Nemesis_ and helping take it and the Decepticons who had reached Earth to their new world. Optimus was hoping tolerance might blossom into some sort of trust, and hoped trade and diplomatic ties might bind the two sides to each other while allowing both sides to keep their identities and run their own planets as they each saw fit. So far very few humans had asked to live with the Decepticons, and the few who had asked had been flatly refused. Starscream might _tolerate_ humans for the treaty, but it didn't mean he had to _like_ them.

Sam raised his hand to his neck, where a small fragment of a metal that had originated far from Earth hung from a chain, resting against his skin. He had found it in Egypt, where The Fallen had died, and kept it as weird sort of trophy, and a reminder of what corruption by power could do, even to a Prime. It was, Sam thought, important to remind himself that even though he had the power of the AllSpark within him, he should not allow it to go to his head. The first clue he had had was when he stopped physically ageing at twenty-five. The second was when he began producing sparklings while sitting with Optimus and Ironhide, who were wishing for young to raise.

He raised his hand as Optimus and Ironhide, having checked everybody due for that flight was on the transport shuttle that served to take people to and from the Ark, hanging somewhere in orbit around Earth, boarded and the hatch retracted and the door shut. As the transport lifted off, Sam waved until the transport was out of sight. He guessed it would be several months before they had deposited their latest load on their chosen planets and then they would return to pick up himself, Bumblebee, and Soundwave, whom had requested that his continued presence not be revealed to the humans. He did not trust them, he had said, and so as far as the humans knew, Soundwave was already on the Decepticon-owned world.

As Bumblebee folded back down into his alt, Sam climbed in, whistling, and they headed for their large house, something Sam had purchased with the money from the interviews he was now able to give to various magazines and publishing houses and cable stations that asked for them. He had also used the money from his book, 'Living with Autobots' to get flying lessons, have a hangar and runway built, and purchase a plane both he and Bumblebee could fit in. Although Sam had continued with his college studies, and had used his qualifications to secure a job at NASA, the revenue generated from the world's interest in his association with the mechanical race from Cybertron allowed him a lifestyle that exceeded his monthly salary.

He got into the house he had had adapted to make the rooms big enough for Bumblebee to stand up in, with the furniture he'd had made to seat Bumblebee and other similar-sized Autobots, and climbed up to his own platform - bedroom in the room, which contained furniture but allowed him to talk to Bumblebee without shouting. He poured himself a glass of water and sipped it, talking to Bumblebee about their plans to join Optimus, Ironhide and his friends on Autobot New Cybertron, where several humans of his acquaintance were waiting for him, including the six children he had had with Mikaela, who was also there, waiting for him and Bumblebee.

Afterwards, he went to bed and slept soundly.

Had he known what the leaders of the Earth's countries were talking about, the betrayal they were prepared to commit, he might not have slept as soundly as he did.


	2. Chapter 2

Betrayal.

Chapter One.

Five Days Later.

There were many different channels of communication between the leaders of the various nations on the planet Earth, but Soundwave, with the aid of his Cassettes, had access to every single one of them. As the humans now believed him gone to the Decepticon-claimed world of the two the mechanical Cybertronian race had chosen, they were a little less careful about electronic communication, although Soundwave had already circumvented the various eyes-only security features and ciphers the humans were utilising. When the humans changed it, or designed an entirely new system, Soundwave was usually able to break or unscramble the codes within a joor of their first use.

As he had not just hacked into the main U.S Military communications satellite, but chosen it as his alt, offlining the real satellite and picking up the messages without so much as a blip to alert the humans, he had most of what he needed to monitor covered. On the rare occasions that anything too sensitive to be transmitted electronically was taken by hand, the repaired Alice-'Con was despatched, and was usually successful in eliminating the real messenger and taking his place as required. After all, the relevant recipient would have been alerted – electronically – that a message would be sent by hand, and it had been a simple matter to alert the human mimic in time for her to take the message personally, posing as the real human, and as the same messenger was used, to stay in that form. After all, it was unlikely the body of the real thing would be discovered, much less identified, soon.

Soundwave's prolonged monitoring had detected a slow but steady rise in the number of military personnel, and nation leaders, who had begun to mistrust the Autobots as well as the Decepticons. The most marked upswing was when the two factions had come to an uneasy but stable truce, the humans fearing that the two sides, now tentatively united, might both turn on Earth. Soundwave had kept a keen watch on this trend, and as messages flew back and forth, had built up enough of a picture to see that the main bulk of human leaders were no longer willing to tolerate the mechanical race's presence on Earth much longer. Hence the decision to move, relocating from Earth in a hope to relieve the pressure before it led to rash and fatal results.

Unfortunately, it seemed that Soundwave had not factored in that the humans had decided that the Cybertronians off Earth and away from their scrutiny were a greater threat than when they were there. Hence the flurry of cryptic messages going on behind the smiles and friendly gestures. Hence the less cryptic messages exchanged shortly after the _Ark_ had departed for the second-to last time, which exposed the human's duplicity. It was strange, Soundwave reflected, that the easiest way to counter the threat would be via the one human he felt he had to now trust, one who had once been a sworn enemy.

He sent a com to one of his Earthbound cassettes, Ravage, whose Spark had only just been saved after the battle, and his body rebuilt in secret. This was the Cassette assigned to the North American continent, and the one most likely to be able to contact the human in question.

Sam Witwicky may not be any friend of the Decepticons, but Soundwave thought he would listen if he knew that the lives of his Autobot friends also hung in the balance.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam jerked awake as an alarm sounded, the two short hoots followed by one longer one that warned that an intruder of nonhuman origin had passed into the grounds of his house, and into range of his motion and Spark-sensor mounted on the roof. He climbed down from his platform and saw Bumblebee already moving out of the room, cannon powered up and shoulder-launchers armed.

He hit the switch to illuminate the immediate grounds, and saw a black catlike mechanoid leaping about the compound. Wasn't that Ravage? He had thought 'Bee had killed that Decepticon in Egypt.

Ravage spotted Bumblebee, but instead of attacking or firing as Sam thought he would do, the felinoid Decepticon stopped dodging and rolled on its back, leaving its vulnerable chest open to any attack Bumblebee might make. Recognising the position as at best surrender, and at worst a trap, Sam said "Bumblebee? Keep your distance but do not fire unless he makes an aggressive move."

Bumblebee addressed an interrogative warble to Ravage, who rolled onto his front but made no move to get up. Instead he spoke to the scout in a series of bleeps and clicks that sounded like Sam's games console powering up. He recognised it as basic spoken Cybertronian, although he could not understand enough to decipher the content. Bumblebee nodded, and turned to Sam.

"Ravage has requested to come in and have some energon with us. He says he means none of us harm, but that he needs to talk." He paused. "He wishes to speak to _you_."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam sat down in his favourite armchair as Ravage lapped up the energon from a cube set in front of him by Bumblebee. He drank just enough to be polite before sitting back on his haunches and letting his mouth hang open a little.

"Samuel James Witwicky, Soundwave has sent me to speak to you, on a matter of some urgency," he said, although his mouth didn't move a millimetre. Sam supposed that was one of the up-sides of a mechanical vocal processor and speaker, no need for a mouth that could alter the space in its mouth to make certain sounds.

"Soundwave? I thought he had left with the others, but hang on, he's a Decepticon, I guess he fibbed." Sam said. "Okay, I'm listening, Ravage, what's up?" Sam asked, for the tone of both the message he bore and the voice he delivered it in suggested that this was serious.

"There are others of your species who seem to object not just to our presence on Earth, but our existence in general. There are those who fear us while we live amongst you, and fear us greater if we depart to somewhere they cannot monitor. Many of those, it seems, are in positions of power on this planet, and they have devised a plan to destroy us all, Autobot and Decepticon alike. The plan they have hit on is one that we can only run from for a short time, and would eventually destroy us all."

"What?" Sam cried, jumping to his feet. "But – you have interstellar travel, something we won't have for several years yet. How can they attack you, if they don't know where you are?"

"They use the technology the Fallen left behind, the technology we altered to solve Humanity's fuel crisis, the Solar Harvester." Ravage replied.

Sam was familiar with the gift the Cybertronians had given to the humans in exchange for a limited period of asylum on the planet. The Solar Harvester was used for extracting energy from stellar bodies, but this process did not always destroy the sun it was used on, that only happened if the machinery was set to maximum. The Cybertronians had reset the machinery to extract a very small proportion of Earth's sun's energy, so little that it would not affect the lifespan of Sol in a measurable amount, but enough that all the needs of the energy-hungry planet were fulfilled.

In conjunction, the Autobots had passed on their knowledge of energy conversion and storage so that humanity's devices were as energy-efficient as possible, a technology that was not seen to pose too much risk of being turned to war. After all, many of the planet's wars were over energy sources, so this gift of technology would likely stop more wars than it risked causing.

"Explain," Sam said, a cold, hard knot forming in the pit of his stomach. Why were humans so intent on seeing other forms of life, and even their own, as a threat?

Ravage nodded in an oddly human manner before continuing. "Humanity has been studying the Sun Harvester, something we thought was relatively safe, as they might need to know how to make repairs if it failed." He paused. "It seems even as they learned how to repair it and keep it operating at around the same level, they also studied how to adjust it to its full output."

"Well, I guess they need to know what settings to avoid, to stop someone from making a goof, and putting it up to maximum by mistake," Sam said. "That was our conclusion too, and the reason they gave for asking, so Optimus and Starscream agreed to give them the knowledge they asked for," Ravage concurred. "We did not know that they were, in secret, studying the probable effects of altering the power settings for a short enough time to not consume the Sun's energy in one go, but long enough to send out a full-power burst." Sam watched the mech, whose own single optic held his gaze as seriously as 'Bee, or Optimus.

"And?" Sam asked. "What does this mean?"

"We also did not know that their experiments enabled them to find a way to convert the energy to a type that would destroy Spark energy, and that if it were used to alter energy from the Harvester, the burst would eventually spread out from Earth to affect the entire universe," the Cassetticon explained. "But – but that's _genocide_! The leaders of the world would never condone it!" Sam cried. "They already have, Sam, or I would not be here now," Ravage said. "They justify it as self defence, and when designated as such, they not only approve of it, but applaud it." He paused before speaking again.

"Cybertronians who have never heard of humanity may be destroyed by it. If we tried to intervene, they would know we were aware, could attack us while there are so few of us here. That is why we are approaching you. Perhaps your intervention would not be noticed until it's too late."

"Well, I hate to disillusion you, but I'm probably at as much risk of detection as you are. What could I do? My pro-Cybertronian sentiments are widely known. They'll be watching me, they already may know you're here."

Ravage gave a mechanical chuckle. "Not with Soundwave controlling what they see via satellite, and my stealth ability shielding me from unaided human optics," Ravage said. "As for being watched, that has already been considered." Ravage's optics dimmed as he sent a com. "Be sure your sensors are tuned to ignore a certain frequency of Spark-signature I will give you, and then get some rest. You may need it."

Sam was too tired to argue, and set the alarm to ignore the Spark- frequency Ravage gave, as well as the cat-mech's own. Then Sam climbed back up to his platform and went back to sleep

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam might later reflect that there was nothing more disturbing than being woken up all unawares by a twin you never realised existed, but that morning he was clueless.

He felt himself being shaken, and heard his own voice saying "Sam, you gotta wake up, we need to get planning and organising." He at first wondered if he were speaking without knowing, and then his eyes opened, and he found himself looking at...himself.

He sat up, almost knocking his identical double over, and it _was_ identical, down to the rumpled pair of cotton PJ bottoms he wore. "Who? What? How?" he asked, nonplussed at the appearance of another Sam Witwicky. His double smiled. "Hey, chill Sam, it's me, Alice, but I'll be you while you sneak off. If I drive the replica you have of the drone Bumblebee copied, they'll never know."

Geez, it even _sounded_ like him, but... "Alice? Who the heck is Alice? I don't _know_ anyone called Alice!" he said.

"Oh come on, Sam, you remember, you, me, your room at college?" his other self replied. It was at that point Sam paled, recalling all too well the time she had pinned him to the bed and kissed him deeply, and Mikaela had walked in at exactly the wrong time and made the wrong conclusions. Of course, Sam had only discovered she was actually a Cybertronian, specifically a Decepticon, _after_ the deep kiss.

"But – Mikaela – she _killed_ you!" he blurted out.

"Almost but not quite," she – no, _he_, - laughed. "Now, if you're gonna make your getaway without notice, you need to reset the alarm to not react to another Spark-signature, one who was also presumed dead but was not. He too was repaired when all the fuss died down, in fact by you when you discovered you could. You also need to move your plane out of the hangar, he'll need the room. I'll do that." S/he paused, then spoke again.

"He's only agreed to this because his life's at stake too, he'd rather spend his 'dotage', as he insists on calling it, in alt, being admired by your kind." Sam nodded, knowing exactly who she was talking about now, moving to the alarm system.

"Spark-frequency?" he asked, and she gave it, before moving to his plane.

"I'll move the plane and close the hangar doors, then tell him it's clear, and give him these co-ordinates," s/he said. Sam watched as 'Sam' moved over and taxied the plane out, unnerved by how good s/he was at mimicking his walk, his posture, his gestures. As s/he shut the hangar door, Sam flattened himself against the hangar wall. If who he thought was coming _was_ coming, he'd need a lot of room.

He'd managed to bring himself out only a few feet above the ground, Sam mused as the ground shook under the feet of the mech who had just spacebridged into the hangar.

Red optics glared at him for a moment, then the mech brought down the cane he no longer really needed in robot form, and leaned on it, peering at Sam.

"So, fleshling, we are forced to work together again, this time against your race, who seek to exterminate mine." The black Seeker said grumpily. Then his voice changed, the tone ringing with pride.

"Hah, they will _never_ succeed against us, your wit and AllSpark power combined with the eternal glory of Jetfire!"


	3. Chapter 3

Betrayal.

Chapter Two.

A/N: Thanks to Razzie from DeviantART for the name of Sam's alter-ego.

"Hiya Jetfire, how's things?" Sam asked the ancient Seeker.

"Still creaking on, still too old for all of this crap, but still doing what is needed when need be," the black flyer replied. Sam smiled. He knew as well as Jetfire that the creaking had left, along with the rust and dysfunctional parts, when Sam had restored him via the AllSpark power. However, only he and the Seeker knew that: Jetfire still acted like a creaky old curmudgeon at times, despite the AllSpark restoring his joints to the condition of those of a newly-Sparked adult.

"Well, it looks like that useful spacebridging ability may be needed again," Sam stated. As Sam expected, the Seeker launched into a stream of invective about 'arrogant fleshlings' and being 'put upon, oh my old servos,'

Sam let the Seeker cuss himself out, waiting until the black ex-Decepticon turned to him and gestured with one hand.

"So, what do you want from me now, hurry up, I want to go back to my nice warm exhibition room while I still can," he said.

"Um, you might want to consider getting the slag out of here?" Sam suggested. "You don't want to be here if that pulse goes off."

"Oh, I'll be looking out for it, I can spacebridge away before it hits," Jetfire said. "Don't you worry about me, fleshling, you just get there and stop them, then I won't have to worry about it, will I?" He leaned on his cane, one hand covering the other and peered at Sam over his knuckles solemnly. "Just don't let me down, eh, or I'll have to find somewhere else to live."

"Soundwave has something in place for us already," Alice said as s/he came in, as if reading his mind. "We calculate the rate the energy will build up, and we'll be leaving when it hits ninety per cent. Soundwave will cover our leaving, they will not see and not suspect, but from that point, you two will be on your own."

"So, what do you suggest?" Sam asked. Alice brought out a brown manila envelope and handed it to Sam.

"In there are some documents that should get you to where you need to be, or help you explain your presence. Grab a change of clothes and any other necessary supplies, and Jetfire will spacebridge you and Bumblebee to Egypt."

"Uh, shouldn't I memorise the documents first?" Sam asked, seeing his restful night slipping away before his eyes.

"Do that in the desert," Jetfire suggested. "I need to get back to the Smithsonian, if the security guard finds me missing, your Government will have to issue another gag notice. And make sure the clothes you choose are suitable: brown and tan to blend in with the desert, tough enough to take some abuse."

Sam decided not to argue the point, changing into one set of tan trousers and packing a second set, two white shirts and one brown one plus a waistcoat and a brown hat with a brim. He also packed a few tins of food, a camping stove and tin plate, cup, bowl and cutlery, and a tent, sleeping mat and sleeping bag.

"Um, what's my cover going to be?" Sam asked.

"You'll be an archaeologist looking at the pyramids, investigating how the Cybertronian presence influenced the ancient Egyptian civilisation," Alice told him. Sam nodded: it made sense, and he added three dry tomes about Egypt and the Pharaohs to his pile. If his cover story were queried, he should have some physical evidence to back up his claims.

"Hang on, what if they query my story, call the university I'm supposed to be from?" he asked.

"Sorted," Alice said, putting her head in the door. "Not only do they have records for you on the computer, there will be people around who, if asked, will remember your persona." S/he winked. "This isn't the first time I've made use of your physical form."

"I don't want to know the details," Sam assured her. "As long as it will pass inspection."

Once he'd gathered everything he thought he'd need, he took it all over to Bumblebee, who had, at some point, managed to switch his alt to that of a tan, military-style all-terrain desert 4x4.

"Don't worry, Sam, I've saved the details of my Camaro alt, I can go back to it when all this is over," the scout assured him.

"Okay, but I hope your inside has enough room for this, " Sam said as he loaded the supplies, which included some large bottles of water, into the scout's boot and then the back seat. As it turned out, they had plenty of room.

"Okay, get in, and I'll transport you in a jiffy," Jetfire said. Sam abstractly noticed that Jetfire had picked up a few human slang terms. Remembering his first - and only – journey via Jetfire's spacebridging techniques, Sam shook his head.

"Take 'Bee and I, but I'll stick outside," he said.

"Okay. Hold on, here we go!" he said putting his hands round Sam and Bumblebee. Then the world burst into a kaleidoscope of colours, that seemed to last a long time, before Sam was thrown face-first into the desert sand.

He sat up, hawking and spitting to clear his mouth, reflecting that at least this time his fall had been of only about one foot rather than ten. Bumblebee was on his side beside him, and Jetfire just beside him.

The Seeker righted the scout, who remarked "Well, that was better than last time."

"I was out of practice last time, but it's all come back to me now," said the dark plane-mech.

"You know, a bit more practice just to fine-tune it might have helped," Sam said. "You might want to consider it if we succeed."

"Well, we can discuss that if you succeed," Jetfire stated. "Now, have you got everything because once I'm gone you're on your own."

Sam thought through his mental list again and found nothing obvious.

"Nope, I'm done," he said.

"Well in that case, read your details and memorise them," the jet said. "Get yourself into character and best of luck. If you don't succeed, it's been nice knowing you. You're quite personable, for a fleshling."

"Gee, thanks, I think," Sam said sarcastically, but without any real negative feeling.

"Good luck, and may Primus go with you!" Jetfire said, and then disappeared, the vacuum left by his departure stirring up a brief but intense sand cloud. Sam coughed and hacked, bringing his sleeve up to filter the air as his eyes streamed against the sand.

"Okay, Bee, let's put up the tent, then I can study these details without having to blink sand out of my eyes," Sam said. Bumblebee whistled happily, tipped out the supplies, and, mindful of potential human surveillance, stayed in alt and watched Sam put up the tent.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam blinked at the text before him in disbelief.

"Martin Lockheed," he read out in disbelief, before looking out at where Bumblebee sat, still in alt but still able to communicate.

"_Martin Lockheed?_" he repeated, shaking his head. "How can I guess that the Seekers had a hand in choosing _that_ name?"

"Don't worry Sam, it's not obvious unless you know your aircraft manufacturers, and even then you need to be looking. It could have been worse." Sam nodded, and carried on reading, sitting in the shadow cast by Bumblebee. The scout wouldn't mind, Sam knew, Cybertronians could withstand greater heat than humans, and it was likely the scout was enjoying the hot rays, which were, he recalled once hearing, hot enough to fry an egg on a rock.

Half an hour later, he stood, rubbing his hand over his bristly chin-he'd not had time to shave, and figured a few day's growth wouldn't be out of place on an archaeologist out in the field. "Let's head towards the pyramids, 'Bee, pitch our tent, than see about getting to the Harvester."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

He found a place to pitch his tent, leaving all non-immediately essential supplies in it. He started a fire, carefully burning the description of his cover, and his real driver's license, and put the documents in the name of 'Martin Lockheed' in his burlap knapsack. If this all worked out well, he could regain his real license, but keeping it could get his cover blown.

He yawned: he hoped he'd have some time either during or after this to grab some sleep: his disturbed night was beginning to catch up with him. However, Soundwave had either forgotten to tell Sam how much time they had to do this, or didn't know himself to tell him, so he figured he'd better find that out before making any plans. He sighed: why did saving the world – or the existence of the Cybertronian race in this case - always seem to end up as his responsibility?

Then he stood, patted 'Bee (who would remain with the tent) on the hood, and waited for the scout to materialise his holoform before setting off on foot towards the pyramids.

As he had expected, he had to get through a military checkpoint to actually get to the pyramids, but a few minutes later, after they checked records while he sweated it out, he was reluctantly waved through.

"Go ahead, Professor Lockheed, I don't know who your connections are but they're obviously powerful: you've been given unlimited clearance to al three pyramids for three days." Sam thanked them, mentally thanking Soundwave and Alice for taking care of everything, and wishing that the time was not so short. Three days? He had to work out how to stop or change this thing in only three days.

"Hey, Professor, one other question: where are your students?" the checkpoint guard asked.

"Students?" Sam repeated stupidly.

"Yeah, students, don't all you archaeology types have them to survey stuff, sift sand, sort pot shards and do the manual labour?"

"Uh, yeah, but they'll be arriving a bit later, I'm just checking ahead so we have an area to start on the moment they get here," he said, glad he was glib of tongue and able to think on his feet.

"Okay, Professor, happy hunting," the sentry called.

Sam didn't want to race up the top of the pyramid containing the Harvester straight away, and arouse suspicion, so he wandered around the base of each of the pyramids, peering at inscriptions and making notes of anything remotely Cybertronian: just as might be expected of him if he really were an archaeologist. When he got to the base of the pyramid containing the Harvester, and was hidden for a short time, he looked up to the sky and brought his hands up to cover his eyes, hoping Soundwave was watching and would realise what he was asking for.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Soundwave, although observing and filtering several images at once, _did_ notice Sam, and took a guess at what Sam was asking for. It only took him a few seconds to locate the footage from the day before, and alter it to show 'Professor Lockheed' and his tent and vehicle in the area, the human figure moving around the requisite pyramid to make notes, occasionally stopping to drink water. Then, another few seconds were used to check it for obvious errors, and then it was a simple matter for Soundwave to cut the feed the Military were getting from Egypt and seamlessly insert his doctored substitute.

Soundwave briefly checked the output of the Harvester and was disturbed to discover that the energy was building faster than he had calculated. It seemed somebody had decided to speed the process up, perhaps just in case. He had thought that Sam would have three days to study the Harvester and work out a way to stop it. Now, it seemed, he would only have three hours.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam waited five minutes, hoping Soundwave had noticed him, then briefly touched the Fallen's armour fragment at his neck as if for luck before starting to climb up the pyramid's side. He listened out for shouts of alarm oir shots, guessing that he would find out soon enough if Soundwave had correctly interpreted his signal.

If not, he hoped they did not have orders to shoot first and ask questions later.


	4. Chapter 4

Betrayal.

Chapter Three.

Still acting cautiously, Sam stopped every so often to make notes, wanting an excuse in case he was stopped, but to his relief he was not challenged. As an archaeologist, he could get away with needing measurements or checking stones, but he wanted to give evidence for that excuse. However, it wasn't needed: his hour-long journey to the summit went unchallenged.

When he reached the top, he _did_ encounter armed guards, but when he showed them his papers, and they were verified by a quick call to the checkpoint below, they nodded and allowed him to proceed.

"Don't touch, Professor," they cautioned. "The mechanism is active, we don't know what might happen if you touch it." "Oh, I'm just here to observe, I won't touch it," Sam said,_ 'unless I have to,_' he mentally added. One of the soldiers nodded, waving him forwards. "Please be as fast as you can, Professor, we suspect protracted exposure to the mechanism will expose you to dangerous levels of radiation, it's why we don't have somebody permanently stationed next to the device." The guard reached over to pin a film badge to him. "If that fogs, it's time to leave," the soldier told him.

"I don't intend to be any longer than an hour," Sam said, hoping it wouldn't take any longer than that. He was hoping he could reset it without the troops knowing, at least until the Autobot and Decepticon leaders returned and could hopefully return the Harvester to peaceful use, setting it to that safe level permanently.

"Try to make it half an hour for safety's sake, and keep checking your badge. I know what you science types are like about time, I'll send one of my men up in thirty-five minutes to remind you," the soldier said with a grin.

Cursing under his breath, Sam nodded and smiled, and headed for the mechanism, crouching and taking out the tiny mike Bumblebee had given him before he'd left. He checked the time and then cupped it in his hand, turning it on so he could contact the Autobot.

"'Bee? I might need you to provide a distraction by the Harvester Pyramid in about thirty minutes time. Think you can do that?"

"Sure, Sam, will do," Bumblebee replied. Satisfied, Sam returned the mike to his pocket and headed for the mechanism, which emitted a low-pitched hum and an electro-magnetic field that made every hair on his body stand up on end.

For the first thirty minutes he _did_ restrict his observations to eyes-only, noting each part of the mechanism, twice contacting Bumblebee to ask about a certain aspect of the mechanism, as Bumblebee had blueprints in his memory. One construct was unknown to Bumblebee, a power conduit, with a gap and a lever visible beyond the three-inch gap that gave access to it. The power that bridged the gap was visible as a reddish-white ribbon as it flowed over the gap, and Sam could see, beyond that, a lever, that Bumblebee theorised was the function-switch lever, which had several settings.

Three of the notches for the lever had Cybertronian glyphs beside them, but Sam couldn't make out what they said due to the distortion caused by the energy ribbon. Sam could only assume that the unmarked setting the lever was currently on was the newest one, the one that would temporarily ramp it up for the Spark-destroying burst.

Sam could see how the adaptations had been hidden, suspecting that the raw power that crossed the only way for someone to reach the lever would incinerate anything that interrupted it. There must be another way the humans could stop it, but if so, it was not visible at the Harvester itself. Perhaps it was held off-site.

Soundwave had said that he had three days to stop the Harvester from unleashing its deadly blast, Sam recalled, and moved on to check the power gauges, reading out the levels on the gauges to the Autobot. It was Bumblebee, making his own calculations, who warned Sam that he now had less than two hours left.

"Hey, I thought I had three days!" he yelped. "So did Soundwave, I contacted him, but he says he's had to revise his opinion," Bumblebee said. "He will only be able to cover you for another thirty minutes before he himself leaves with Jetfire and the others. He said Alice is already getting herself into position to be rescued, and is taking a risk to keep your cover from being blown, but in the same thirty minutes, she'll have to go. From then on, apart from me, you are on your own."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Locking up and hiding the keys in the false stone by Sam's door - for if he succeeded he'd need to be able to get back in – Alice, still wearing Sam's form, moved into the hangar and made sure the plane was fuelled up. It was, and she opened the plane door so Ravage could slip in, curling up in the space designed for Bumblebee. She opened the hangar door and carefully guided the plane outside, right to the end of Sam's privately-owned runway, closing the hangar door with the remote.

Taxiing the plane to the end of the runway she turned it and accelerated till she could take off. Heading for the remotest part of the Nevada desert, she opened up a com to Jetfire, sending him a set of co-ordinates. 'When I get to these co-ordinates, I'll call you. Be ready to collect me on my mark.'

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam crouched and looked at the mechanism, looking so innocent yet capable of dealing such death. The lever only had one more setting to go if pushed, two if he were able to grab it and pull. The only problem was the ribbon of current, and try as he might he couldn't think of a plausible reason to ask the soldiers to turn it off. He had already tried asking them to switch it off so he could read the glyphs, and they had responded by giving him close-up photos of them. Then he had almost pleaded, saying he needed to examine them hands-on and in the flesh, and again they had refused.

"Look, Professor, we have our orders and one of them is that the current may not be switched off without a week's notice and three nation leader's consent," One of the soldiers had told him. "Anyway, it would probably take about a week before it powered down completely for you to have a look, and as I recall, you only have three day's clearance."

'_Less than that if you knew the honest truth,'_ Sam thought but did not say. Thanking the soldiers, he went back up, trying to think of some way to get to the lever. Only one option presented itself to him, and it was likely to hurt, and not a hundred per cent guaranteed to succeed. He pulled out his tiny mike and whispered into it.

"'Bee, can you ask Soundwave to conceal what I'm doing up here from satellites and spy-cams? Could you set up some sort of diversion five minutes from now to draw the attention of as many of the soldiers here as possible? I'm gonna need as much luck as I can get, and time to run and hide if need be. If you could watch out for me and help me get away, I'd appreciate it." "Sure, Sam, I've been learning holograms from Hound," Bumblebee said. "It'll be fun to see how realistic I can make them. I'll be nearby." "Thanks, Bee, can you let me know when Soundwave has me hidden from the satellites?"

Sam spent a tense few minutes waiting for Bumblebee's confirmation, fiddling nervously with the shard of metal at his neck. "Sam, Soundwave says you're covered," Bumblebee told him it seemed an eternity later. "Okay, pal, do your stuff," Sam replied. He almost told Bumblebee to expect him to be hurt, but worried that explaining might take too long and even risk them being found out. He just hoped this would work.

He waited until shouts from the soldiers told Sam that whatever Bumblebee was doing, their attention was off Sam. He knew that the AllSpark within him accelerated his normal rate of healing and kept him in good condition. He wasn't naive enough to expect that it could preserve his arm entirely, but he hoped it could keep it functional long enough for the few seconds it would take him to do the only thing he could do. He hoped his efforts would not be in vain.

Turning towards the controls and the conduit, he focused on the gap in the conduit and the lever beyond. He pushed aside the fear he felt, focusing on what he hoped this would do. Then, before he could bottle out, he put his left arm into the gap, thrusting forward, pushing his arm deep into the slot, straight into the path of the current.

For a moment he felt nothing, but saw his arm blister and then blacken, and although the nerves in his arm were dead by the time his burned, shrivelled hand hit the lever, he saw it move to the last position, although he couldn't feel it any more. He felt the thrumming beneath his feet increase in tempo and thought _'I've failed, I've pushed the power up.' _

He tried to pull backwards, in the hope that he might be able to pull the lever back with his carbonised hand, but as he fell back, whatever had delayed him from feeling the pain stopped, and he screamed in agony as he fell back from the gap. His blackened, smoking, shrivelled arm hit the stones beside him, and it shattered into several pieces. He looked at the blackened stump, thinking that at least he wouldn't bleed to death, before the pain overwhelmed him and he blacked out.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Alice set down in the Nevada desert, not caring that she wasn't in as isolated a spot as she had hoped. Having received orders from Soundwave to set down wherever she was and get them on the ground, she obeyed, comming Jetfire as she and Ravage climbed out. With a bang, the black Seeker was with them, not even pausing as he put his hands about them and began the build-up to another spacebridge.

"Soundwave said the power's been pushed up, we need to leave NOW!" he explained, before he moved them all with a bang of displaced air up into space, where Soundwave was waiting.

Alice and Ravage discarded their now-useless Earth kibble as Soundwave reactivated the Earth satellite he had replaced, making sure it was still running the loop concealing Sam and Bumblebee's actions from prying eyes. Then he too discarded his disguise, quickly going into cometary form with the rest of them.

"What happened?" Jetfire asked. "Harvester-power-back-to-maximum. Machine-returned-to-original-function." Soundwave said. "Earth's-sun-will-die. "What, after all that effort we expended to stop the Harvester being activated by The Fallen, it's still going to be activated anyway?" the Seeker grumbled. "What was the point?" With that, he disappeared.

Soundwave received Ravage back into his compartment and then he and Alice headed towards the planets owned by their own kind, sending out a com with a request for a ship to meet them on the way.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

Sam came around to heat beating down on him, and pain which was no longer searing but still barely tolerable. Remembering what had just happened, he used his remaining arm to push himself up. He glanced at his blackened stump. There was no sign of it regenerating, he guessed that even that was beyond the AllSpark, at least where organic matter was concerned. He had taken that chance willingly, knowing this, he'd adapt to having just one arm. He supposed there was a chance the AllSpark might work it out later, but for now, at least it was cauterised and wouldn't bleed.

For a moment, he contemplated sacrificing his other arm to try and pull the lever forward, but as he didn't know what he'd done pushing it back, he didn't know if he might make a bad situation worse, or whether it would even help anyway. He didn't know the settings, and didn't want to risk switching the setting back to the killing one he'd managed to move it from. No, he decided, he'd have to live with whatever his actions had precipitated.

He had to get down, down to Bumblebee, the soldiers would soon be back up and he couldn't be here when they got there. He used his one arm to pull himself upright, began walking down, but without his other arm his balance was off. He tipped to one side and then fell, rolling, tumbling head over heels, striking his arm, stump, legs, body, and head as he fell down the stepped pyramid. He reached the bottom, sick, dizzy, and bruised, certain he had broken several bones during his descent. Black spots danced in front of his eyes, and as he felt a burning pain and heat at the base of his throat, he realised, AllSpark aside, that he was probably dying.


	5. Chapter 5

Betrayal.

Chapter Four.

Bumblebee watched as the soldiers scrambled for their jeeps, radioing their Base as he projected the image of a Russian-marked European Joint Strike Fighter Mark IV landing in the desert. Although relations between America and Russia were quite convivial by now, the soldiers would still be twitchy about an uncleared non-US aircraft in American territory. He would dissolve the hologram as soon as they got close enough to touch it, but it would keep them occupied for as long as needed, he hoped, for Sam to do what he planned to do. If needed, he did not have to dissolve the hologram right away, and could buy some more time for Sam.

The soldiers were halfway to the hologram when Bumblebee's sharp audios heard Sam scream. He abandoned the hologram there and then, because the scream sounded agonised. As the soldiers stared at the hologram, it rippled and de-rezzed, and Bumblebee tore into action, heading for the side of the pyramid he'd last seen Sam at. He could see a figure at the top lying very still.

By now the soldiers, realising they'd been duped, were getting back into their jeeps. It was about then that Bumblebee saw Sam stir. He waited in alt mode as Sam staggered to his feet, and then fell. Something was wrong, Bumblebee realised, something about Sam. As Sam began tumbling down the pyramid, Bumblebee waited anxiously, not wanting to give the game away too fast, but as he activated his holoform he made sure his alt was between the approaching soldiers and the place Sam would likely come to rest.

When Sam rolled to the base of the pyramid it took all Bumblebee's self-control to not convert to robot form and approach the downed human, although he did move his holoform and initiated a discreet scan. He had already spotted that Sam's left arm was missing from midway down his humerus.

He was worried by the scan results. Three broken ribs, a fracture of one of Sam's femurs, a complicated fracture of the opposite ankle, and two skull fractures were registered. As the scan tallied his internal injuries, Bumblebee winced: he had a punctured lung, stomach and duodenal injuries, and one of the broken ribs had pierced the surface of his liver.

"Alright, stay where you are and you, Cybertronian, we know you're not just a jeep. Come out of alt and power down your weapons. We have sabot rounds and any attempt to fire on us, or any attempt to escape, and we will kill you." Bumblebee obeyed, coming out of alt and powering down his cannon, raising his hands to the sky. The soldiers he'd fooled earlier had reached them.

"Please, don't hurt him!" the Autobot scout pleaded as one of the soldiers approached the supine Sam. "He's hurt, I fear he is dying, he has broken bones and internal injuries."

"Be quiet!" he said but did call into his radio for a med-evac helicopter to come to them, and knelt to check the pulse at Sam's throat. "Pulse is weak and irregular," he said. He jerked his hand back, then cautiously pulled back Sam's collar to expose the fleshy base of Sam's throat. It was glowing with a blue-white light. "What the Hell?" the soldier asked.

It was as big a surprise to Bumblebee as to the soldier when a tendril of blue-white energy coiled out from Sam, striking the soldier square in the chest and throwing him back by thirty feet. Bumblebee, guessing what would happen, just reacted, dropping to a crouch by Sam, bending over him with his arms round him protectively. The other soldiers began firing, and Bumblebee tensed, sure he was about to die, but a cocoon of the same blue-white energy had enveloped the space around both the human and the Autobot. The sabot rounds bounced harmlessly off, and the Commanding Officer of the soldiers called for his men to stop firing, fearful that the rebounds might hit his own men.

Bumblebee turned back to look at Sam, only to be confronted by a human-shaped mass of blue-white energy, an energy that was pulsating and growing.

The soldiers backed off as it spread, irregularly, but Bumblebee recognised it, it was AllSpark energy, an energy reading any Cybertronian anywhere would know, for once they had all been searching for it. The AllSpark was mainly a benevolent force, the energy shield it had produced had protected him _and_ Sam from the bullets. Bumblebee did not think the energy would protect him from the humans only to engulf and destroy him itself. So as the soldiers backed off, he let the white-blue energy sweep over him.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

For Sam, the pain faded after a while and his vision blurred and became filled with blue-white light. For a while he thought he was back in the world of the Prime Dynasty, but no, this was different. He was not standing, there were no darker forms coming out of the light towards him. He could not speak, there was no need, and he could have stayed lying in the brightness with this warm energy surging within him forever.

He had no sense of time, he had been there for just a few seconds, and forever, but surely both could not be true? Something about the energy changed and for a moment he could feel his body, move his limbs. Knowledge of how to move, how to use the various parts of his body, how to do so many things began flowing into his head, and he found it remarkable that he was able to remember it all with such clarity.

A countdown started in his head and he knew somehow that it was important and the amount of time left was not very big. Images and pictures formed in front of him for fleeting seconds and were gone to be replaced by many others, but he was surprised and delighted to realise he could remember them all perfectly. He was aware of another presence there too, but only peripherally.

Knowledge, there was suddenly so much _knowledge_, and he suddenly seemed to have a fantastic memory, seeing it for split-seconds but remembering it all in detail.

Then the light abruptly cut out and he was looking up into that same bright sun, and recalling why he was there, he sat up.

It was at that moment he realised that he once again possessed two arms.

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

As the light receded and faded, the soldiers edged back closer, and as the yellow Cybertronian emerged unscathed, they grew bolder and approached nearer as the glow contracted. When it eventually stopped retreating, it still occupied a space larger than that taken up by the boy, and as it faded, they saw why.

"S-Sam, where are you?" Bumblebee asked, then took three steps back as the black and bronze mech, his plating and joints edged with hot red lines, pushed himself to a sitting position. Once again, Bumblebee took several more steps back, a whimper escaping his vocaliser even as he activated his cannon, pointing it at the immense figure.

Why was The Fallen back in Egypt, alive and functioning?

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

It was at about this time that Sam became aware of two more things: he towered over Bumblebee, even seated, and that he didn't have the time to explain anything. He scrambled to his feet, swaying a little, but found that Cybertronian gyros and processors helped him learn to balance in this immense new form quicker than flesh and blood balance control was learned by a human child.

The knowledge of his new form that he had gained was immediately accessible, and he also recognised that Bumblebee was fearful of his new form. Unfortunately he was out of time to do anything but act, he couldn't even reassure the Autobot. However, there was one thing that would help save time, and that was the fact that this new form could fly. At least he didn't have to waste time climbing up the pyramid.

He turned and sprang, soaring up and landing almost atop the pyramid, crouching and peering at the Harvester, wondering if he could use one of his new fingers to move the lever. As he initiated a scan, however, the readings told him only one thing. No matter what he did, he could no longer stop the Harvester. It had reached a critical power, and as powerful as his new form was, it could not change the laws of physics. The reaction was now self-sustaining: trying to turn it off would no longer work.

His scan did give one piece of good news: the Spark-destroying pulse would only have been generated if the power had been increased for just a few seconds: the method used to crank the power back down would have created the pulse, to vent the excess energy, as a side effect. The Harvester had now been at full power for a good five minutes, and whatever process they would have used to bring the power back down would now be ineffectual. Even if they tried it, no pulse would be created.

However, there was only one function of a Sun Harvester at full power: that for which it had been originally created. According to Sam's internal countdown, the Harvester's energy generation would reach a critical point in six minutes and forty-seven seconds: it would then send out a bolt of pure plasma which would incinerate anything in its way, connect with the Sun, and begin draining it. Light took eight minutes to reach the Earth from the Sun: the majority of Humanity were going about their normal lives, completely unaware that they had fourteen minutes and a few seconds of that normal life left to them. Sam considered destroying the Harvester, but his calculations indicated that this would cause it to explode, probably taking half the Earth with it.

The Sun would not be drained instantaneously: it would probably take days, maybe a couple of weeks for the Harvester to do that, but the climactic and tectonic effects would be felt within hours. That still left time for some of the humans to be rescued, if the Autobots could get back from their current location and take on as many people as they could cram aboard. As the _Ark_ was quite a cavernous vessel – and the Autobots had already transported a large number of people to new worlds already – Sam had hopes that maybe a tenth of Earth's current population could be saved in this way, maybe a bit more. Destroying the Harvester would kill everyone on Earth, including himself and Bumblebee.

He wondered if he could re-align the Harvester to hit another star instead of Sol. There was Sirius, four light years away, and Sam began calculating, wondering if he had enough time. He might just be able to do it, he thought, but it would be cutting it very fine and had less than a fifty per cent chance of success. There just might be enough time, but it was far more likely that he would not be able to complete physical adjustments of the spires in time, would get himself vaporised in the process, and the Harvester would _still_ hit Sol, the beam, if not fixed on an alternative target, drawn to the closer star. It was at least a chance, but time meant he would have to do it _now_. He turned back towards the Harvester, calculating the angles he'd need to align the Harvester spires to aim the beam towards Sirius.

The sound of firing pulled him from his calculations, and he realised that the soldiers still saw he and Bumblebee as hostile, particularly as Bumblebee had brought out his cannon. Not realising that Bumblebee's reaction had been in reaction to Sam's altered form they were attacking his Autobot friend. As he watched, Bumblebee flinched, the red-white flare of sabot rounds blossoming as the bullets hit his armour. Sam realised that whatever protection the earlier force-field had given the scout, he was now out of range. As Sam watched, Bumblebee cried out and collapsed on the sand, leaking energon from multiple injuries. In another few seconds, the hail of bullets would destroy his Autobot friend.

Sam now faced a dilemma. He could try and save the Sun, and thus the, Earth, or he could save Bumblebee.

However, time was the enemy, and Sam knew that with time counting down, he couldn't do both.


	6. Chapter 6

Betrayal.

Chapter Five.

A/N: Short, but can't really add much more without waffling. Thanks to writer MeowthTwo for the loan of her character, Dr Syn.

His decision made, Sam leaped from the pyramid with a bellow of rage, swooping down even as he wondered how to contact the _Ark_. He landed in front of the injured Bumblebee, the forcefield flickering back into existence. Crouching by his severely-injured friend, he said "Bee, it's me, it's Sam, don't be scared. I need Ratchet's com code."

Bumblebee's optics shuttered open, and he reached up a hand, as a data lead popped out. He realised that as Bumblebee didn't know Sam's own com code –and neither did Sam - the scout would have to manually connect to him. Sam helped guide Bumblebee's hand to the back of his neck as he closed the vents in his armour to stop the heat within from melting his friend. The lead slipped into place, and then Bumblebee sent him Ratchet's com codes, and instructions on how to com.

Sam wasn't sure how long the force-field would hold out, but if his plan worked it would only need to for another few seconds. He sent a com to Ratchet, explaining everything that had happened, ending it with a request. '**Please tell me the Ark is travelling at a constant speed and in a constant direction, and at a constant level. Work out the co-ordinates of an open space in it, and compensate for your travel in those dimensions, in real-time so I can correct as I go. It's no good me arriving where you,ve been, or halfway through a wall. I'll explain later**.'

He waited a few seconds, hoping Ratchet would do as he asked, he didn't have time for anyone to procrastinate or check with anyone else. To his relief, Ratchet's reply was a running commentary of co-ordinates in the first three dimensions. His body would have to compensate for the fourth, the time it would take, and he hoped it was up to the task. It wasn't as if he'd had much practice in any of the things he was now needing to do.

Sam stretched his hands over and around Bumblebee and concentrated, feeding the stream of co-ordinates into his processors and setting them to predicting where they would need to be. Then he went through several steps, and initiated the process he had in mind.

From the point of view of the soldiers, the two Cybertronians appeared to glow and then vanish, the soldier's bullets whizzing through the air as the force-field disappeared with them. They stopped firing, the commander of the soldiers looking around much as his men were doing.

"What happened?" one asked.

"I don't know, but they are quite clearly not here anymore," the commander replied. "If they can disappear that easily, they could easily reappear, so stay alert. I'll radio through to HQ, they can ask for any signs of their appearance, anywhere on Earth, to be reported."

oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo oOo

As it happened, Sam had not spacebridged them to anywhere on Earth, but rather was aiming for the _Ark_, which was rapidly heading towards it. Ratchet waited in the shuttle bay, he had hurried down to it the moment Sam's com had come through. Thankfully he had been near enough when it came through, now they were just awaiting Sam.

He appeared, his arms around Bumblebee, at the far end of the bay, about ten feet off the ground. His velocity was very slightly off, for when he hit the ground he slid along the floor, bumping off shuttles as he slid along, ending up hitting the wall with a processor-rattling clatter.

Although Sam had warned the medic about his new form, seeing was quite different from being told. For a few moments Ratchet stared, but then raced over, for he could see that at last one of them was leaking energon.

Comming to the 'bot on helm that Sam was aboard so they could now increase to maximum speed towards Earth, Ratchet began scanning them, and found that Sam was in a better shape than Bumblebee. He opened a com to his medbay on the ship.

'Freewheeler, bring down some energon and a large patching kit, bring two stretchers, one for a medium-light 'bot of no more than six metres, and another for ' - he paused to think – 'make the second one the largest we have, and send down those two big Seekers, whatever their names are, with it to help carry, we have a very large patient to care for,'

'You mean Freefall and Shadowwing? Okay, they're on their way, with Dr Syn and First Aid for the smaller stretcher." Ratchet cut the com and spoke to Sam.

"I've got people coming down to take you and Bumblebee to our medical bay, so wait there, you took a knock coming in." As Sam started to protest, saying he needed to explain things, Ratchet said "You sent enough of an explanation; we are now heading back to Earth at top speed based on that. I don't think anything else you have to say can't wait for ten minutes to get you two to the med bay."

"Ratch, I don't need to be stretchered, I can walk," Sam began, but was silenced as Ratchet fixed him with an intense azure glower.

"I think I'll be the judge of that, now don't try to get up, stay there!" he said, reinforcing his words with a hand on Sam's shoulder.

Sam looked up with a small strange laugh, he was still unused to this body's unusual mouth parts. "You know, I owe Jetfire an apology next time I see him," he said. "How do you work that one out?" Ratchet asked.

"Because spacebridging's not really that easy, particularly if your destination is moving," Sam said.

"Well, you'll get your chance," Ratchet said, "because Jetfire commed us with his own report just after you contacted us. We'll be meeting him on Earth, he's agreed to help with the rescue."

"As has Starscream, he's currently bringing the _Nemesis_, as he was already planning to bring the hatchlings and the Fallen's ship back with us. He can go over and activate its systems," said a jolly looking brown mech, who walked in with a red and white Autobot, followed by the two biggest Seekers Sam had ever seen. "I suggested that it would be for the good of the truce for all three ships to help out."

"Thank you for that, Doctor Syn. Can you and First Aid help those two get Sam on the stretcher while I patch Bumblebee and replace his energon? We can both repair him properly in the med bay," said Ratchet, already opening one of the pack of silvery flexible strips and slapping them on the yellow scout over the bullet holes.

Sam allowed himself to be lifted gently by the two Seekers and two medics onto the stretcher, but did not rest or relax until the three had worked on Bumblebee and then said he'd be fine. "And so will you, after a rest, that's a fine form, but even you have limits," said the jolly brown Decepticon medic, Dr Syn. Ratchet nodded his agreement, personally he thought Sam was in mental shock after everything he had been through in so short a time, but decided not to voice that opinion just yet.

"Ratch, we can help, can't we? We can evacuate people, can't we? How will we choose who to take and who to leave behind?" he fretted. "I think it will be down to a few factors, Sam: how many we can cram on board the three ships, how many we can crowd into the transport shuttles, which are themselves capable of independent space travel, albeit slower, and who wants to go. I am sure there will be some who won't, we are not so different and some of us preferred to die with our world rather than leave." Ratchet's optics dimmed briefly as he remembered. "Also, we have to choose landing places, so it will also depend on who can get to us, or us to them, but we have some good minds working on that already. Now, you have to rest now, I'm sure you'll want to be strong enough to do anything you can once we reach Earth."

Sam nodded, suddenly feeling incredibly tired, and he slid into recharge without protest.


	7. Chapter 7

Betrayal.

Epilogue.

In the end, just over three-quarters of the Earth's population were saved, for although the Harvester was on full power, it still took it three weeks to put the Sun out entirely, and within that time, the Autobots and Decepticons alike evacuated as many as they could.

Between them, Sam and Jetfire – who had already started when they arrived – were able to transport shipping container loads of people to a nearby uninhabited planet Jetfire had found which had food and water and not too many predators. Although not suitable for long-term habitation and colonisation, it could support them for weeks or months, which vastly improved the amount of people they could remove from Earth in the first place. Once the situation was explained, plenty of people were willing to pile into a shipping container, be spacebridged to the planet, file out, and let Sam or Jetfire go back with the empty crate to the Earth.

They met plenty of people who did not wish to leave. Some had relatives in different areas of the globe, and wanted not to leave until they had contacted them. Still others could not conceive of living on any other planet except Earth, and refused to go, although many of these changed their minds when the Earth began to react to the Sun's destruction with earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunami.

Many of those who chose to stay were elderly, and did so for altruistic reasons. "Take some of the younger ones, people who have not had as long a life as we," was a common response. Others begged them to take their families in their stead, although when Sam and Jetfire told them they could take them and their families, they were usually happy to go.

Wealth and power and position suddenly became obsolete: neither Sam, Jetfire or any of the Autobots or Decepticons were impressed or influenced by being told that this was General So-and-So or Prince of such-and-such, or that Person X would pay millions or billions of whatever currency to be saved: it was first-come, first-served. Transport vessels took on people at different locations while Sam and Jetfire spacebridged those in remote locations who would come to their crates or one of the ships.

The three vessels also took on as many people as they could, the transport vessels shuttling them back and forth only ceasing when all three vessels were so full that no more could be taken on board, and then they packed themselves full of humans, and they and the three mother vessels began the long journey back to an uninhabited but colonisable world the humans could make their own, stopping off where needed for food and drink for the human refugees.

Of course, the architects of the Sun Harvester Conspiracy had no desire to stay, and after a bit of argument, both factions agreed they had the same rights to rescue as other humans. However, it was agreed by both factions that the humans who had been involved in the conspiracy to use the Harvester to wipe out the Cybertronians would be asked to account for their actions, and then left in the hands of the Government of one of the human-owned planets of their choice. There they would be freed or face trial as that government saw fit. Condemning the conspirators to die on the Earth might have been seen as poetic justice by many, but both factions had agreed to let humans deal with human matters as long as humans let the Cybertronians deal with their own.

Where possible and practicable, the vessels did not restrict themselves to human life only: the _Ark_ lived up to its name by taking on several pairs of animals, and putting them into cryo-sleep in a hold, webbing them to the walls so the floor space could be reserved for humans. Frozen ova and sperms were also taken and stored on board,

Jetfire and Sam were able to transport some of the aquatic species to nearby alien seas, although there was no guarantee they would survive being transplanted. Plants were reasonably easy: seeds and spores were small and easily transportable. However, they could not save them all, and Sam knew that the loss of the brown bear, the snow leopard, the giraffe, and others would be keenly felt by some of the refugees.

Only when their scans revealed no more human or animal life forms on the Earth did Jetfire and Sam themselves spacebridge back towards the ships, and then Jetfire showed Sam how to transform into cometary form, and they joined up with the three mother vessels and the twenty-four smaller escort ships. The vessels would deposit the humans on whatever suitable planets there were and then go back for those Jetfire and Sam had rescued: they could sort out which planets with what rulers or religion or philosophy they wanted to live on once everybody was safe.

Sam wondered if, once the pace slowed and he had time to dwell upon his transformation, he would cope as well as he had been so far, but then he shrugged the concern off. He was sure Mikaela and his parents would cope, although it was a big change to get used to, and Bumblebee, Ratchet and most of the other 'bots he'd been working with had already got used to it, were well on their way, or hid well any surprise or concern they had. It was himself, he thought, who would need to learn to get used to it, and he would, at some time, need to find out if his transformation had been the AllSpark's last gasp, its last action, or whether the power was still in him, waiting to be tapped.

But that, he decided, could wait.


End file.
